Can you give us a scouting report on the Gophers?
I don't think we have a bad offense. I just don't think our offense is that good right now. But these two teams are pretty similar right now.
I'll give it a shot. Defensively, our secondary is obviously our strength, even with the injuries we are still pretty good. I won't lie though, our injuries, especially at safety are concerning. Travis and Johnson are good, decent in coverage, really good at run support. Same goes for Boddy-Calhoun. He is vastly underrated as a tackler and he's a playmaker for us. Those losses have me worried. Linebacker play has been a bag of mixed goods, but mostly good. IMO, Lynn is our best linebacker. Poock is probably out do we'll play with an undersized MLB if he can't go which all indications at this point are he won't. So Celestine is his backup and he's athletic, but I question whether he can withstand an entire game right now. The other guy is Campbell who is an athletic freak and probably having his best year at the position, but he did have his worst game last week. Our injury issues and lack of depth are part of the reason we play nickel so much with Myrick on the outside and BBC inside. Huff is another undersized LB who we basically rush from the edge almost exclusively. He's a true freshman and probably doesn't weigh more than 220 album he's quick and gets under the tackles a lot. Our line is a lot of meh. Our best player on this side of the ball is Steven Richardson who's a short DT, but qood lord is he powerful. We struggle getting sacks, but regularly get pressure. We've been good defensively outside of last week where we had a bad half and the buckled down on the second half. Cockran is our best edge rusher on the line and Keith is starting to piece it together as well. But run defense can be sketchy at times.
Offensively we are a little weird. If you listen to the prognosticators we are one dimensional only, yet we've averaged close to 35 pass attempts a game. Leidner is an average QB but an elite leader. He's currently 5th in the conference in passing yards, but last or near the bottom in efficiency. We've started to do some things now to open the passing game for us, but it all comes back to the running game. If we can't run the football, we can't do shit. Smith is a really good back, but he isn't strong enough yet to be a truly effective back so he needs that complimentary back. That's why Brooks playing and doing well last game is big for us. They are different backs and will compliment each other well. Linger is our only good TE right now that has a lot of experience and who's an effective blocker. He doesn't get many looks right now, but he can be used as a receiving option. Wide outs are a mixed bag. This is easily the most talent we've seen under Kill at the position, but there still isn't a lot of experience there and they mostly all suffer from an occasional case of the drops. Maye is our biggest playmaker in the unit from the slot. He's actually fairly effective down field too as he has decent speed, but he drops too many damn passes. Wolitarsky is one of the outside receivers. He isn't a blazer but he has decent speed and is probably our "best" receiver. Carter has the best hands and is slowly becoming our best receiver and he's the other outside guy. We have two freshmen in Still and Gentry that have shown flashes but Gentry is probably the most talented guy in the entire position group right now and will likely see an expanded role. OLine is currently a MASH unit. I don't know a thing about OLine play. What I can tell you though is that they played their best game last week. I'm more inclined to think it had more to do with the game plan than it did with health as they are still really banged up.
Sorry it was very long winded, but that's my best shot
I can clarify a few things here starting with the O:
- Leidner is an inconsistent guy. So far this year he's been up and down but has been more consistent with the shorter passing game the last few games but just terrible on deep balls which is the complete reverse of last year. He's rarely ran this year but he can run decently and every few games we'll go read option crazy and he'll have 15 carries.
- I already talked about the OL mash unit. Due to those injuries they haven't been very good this year but did pick it up some last week. If they can open up some holes in the run game it will really help the pass pro. We run a lot of power and inside zone and the OL has been struggling making 2nd level blocks
- RBs are solid. Smith has been very good so far as a FR as he's a quck, explosive guy with good vision and instincts. He does need to get stronger as he's literally been a slapped thigh away from 2-3 TDs this year as he's allowed himself to be tripped up due to a lack of lower body strength but he does run hard. Brooks has played one game and showed good lateral quickness and strength but its one game so who knows.
- TEs are decimated with our top 2 out for the year and our best remaining guy Lingen in and out of the lineup. He's solid when he plays. Wozniak is a 6'10" kid that's been up and down as a blocker but has been solid as a receiver. After that we're playing 2 walk ons that have played well but aren't big threats in the passing game or '6th OL' types
- At WR, Maye has been our best WR and he plays outside and not the slot as Wolitarsky, though a big WR, has been playing out of the slot. Those 2 and Eric Carter are the top 3 WRs but none are overly explosive but all are solid underneath. Maye is a nice double move guy so he can get behind a D and has decent speed but Leidner hasn't been able to hit him often. there are 3 frosh WRs with the size and speed to be dangerous but haven't put it all together yet in Still, Holland and Gentry. Gentry had a big play last week and was the best of those guys and probably one of our top WRs in camp but he got hurt late and just got back in the mix last week.
Overall its hard to say what to expect on O because our O is so gameplan specific. We may go tempo, may slow it down and go smash mouth, may take a bunch of deep shots or may attack underneath and horizontally. This means that sometimes there's a great gameplan and effective playcalling, other times we look stuck in mud. However everything is dependent on the consistency of the OL and QB which is kind of 'duh' but its so true in our case.
On D we're a stop the run and keep everything in front of us D. At the same time our DC doesn't like to sit back and let the O dictate things and runs a lot of man and pressures out of a basic cover 4 look. Our DBs being hurt is problematic because our safeties are a big part of what we do as well as the nickel back. We give those guys a lot of 1 on 1 coverage responsibilities down the field and like to get creative with the coverages so miscommunication by inexperienced guys can hurt
- DL has been solid. Richardson at DT is the best guy and he's a mini Aaron Donald. He's consistently disruptive and demands a double team. Our other starting DT Scott Ekpe was out last year with an ACL and is getting back into form and making some plays. He's not huge at about 280 but he's a nice athlete. DEs have been good but haven't gotten many sacks. Cochran, Hank Ekpe and Alex Keith rotate there. They'll rush and also drop into coverage at times. They've been solid against the run on the edge as well
- LBs have been solid too. Starters are Poock in the middle (he'll play) and he's a solid, instinctual guy. Lynn at WLB is probably our best LB all around with good size, instincts and speed, and Campbell is the most athletic and has been more consistent this year. We'll also play 2 sophs in Celestin and Williams who are both thumpers. Williams is the slowest of the bunch but is good against downhill running teams. The guy that's made the most plays is the true frosh Huff as he's been used as a stand up rush end and as caused havoc
- Our DBs were legitimately one of the best 10 secondaries in the country IMO. Murray is a man coverage lock down guy and teams shy away from him. Myrick is the other outside CB and is basically a starter since we're usually in nickel and he's really turned into an above average coverage guy this year though he's susceptible to jump balls. If Johnson plays he's a thumper of a Field Safety with decent coverage skills. Boddy-Calhoun is a playmaker and a really good cover corner who now plays mainly nickel. IMO Travis was our most important player as he was a versatile safety that could cover the slot and also play as a 3rd LB in the box. With him out Ace Rogers is the guy and he's more of a S/CB hybrid so it will be interesting to see how we play in our nickel packages as last year we went with a 3 safety look often but with Travis out and Myrick's improvement we've gone more 3 cbs. With Boddy-Calhoun questionable it'll be interesting to see what we do there as well as we have a bunch of inexperienced guys behind him.
